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Six Blogging Trends for 2017 3/1/2017 11:00:00 AM by: Andy Lee

There are 150 million active blogs.

That just makes me want to turn off my computer and find another calling.

But my heart won’t let me. So, I keep on pecking away at my laptop asking God to give me the words and to show me what someone needs to read that day. And I continue to stay faithful to what the Lord has called me to do—as well as those wise people in the publishing industry.

Blogging is a way we build our platform. It’s how we reach our tribe. It’s ministry for those of us in the Christian writing world. But as in everything in ministry, we owe it to our God and to our followers to do it well.

That includes staying up to date with the ever-changing trends in the blogging world. It’s been proven that those companies who don’t grow with the culture, die. It’s kind of like sticking with the wonderful hymns of old and the wooden pews. I love them, but they no longer speak the heart language of today’s generation. It’s hard to draw in a new crowd. And the fact is, evangelism is at the heart of the great commission, right? Jesus said to go and make disciples.

So, what do we need to do to keep our blogs relevant in this ever-changing society? How do we pull in new readers? One way is to be aware of the trends for this year. Here are six trends according to Isolvid.

1.Longer word count:

“Recent studies suggest that content that tends to rank on the first page of Google has an average of 1,900 words. Hence, publishing blog posts that are in a region of 500 words would not carry much value for your search rankings and would not provide value to your users.”

If you write longer posts, bold the important sentences. Make it skim-able. Bullet points. Honestly, I will probably not write a post this long. But it is something to consider and good to know that it affects the Google ratings.

2.Simplicity. Clean template. White space. Minimalist

“The rule to keeping your audience attracted and glued to your work is to keep it simple! Ensure that professionalism, quality and simplicity run through your video materials, sentences and structures used in your content, reduce sentence length and the use of jargons as much as possible.”

Don’t write long paragraphs. Keep them short. Choose a theme that is clean too. Wordpress has clean templates that fit this trend.

3.Comaptiblity

Make it compatible for mobile phones and tablets. Most people are reading our blogs on their phones or tablets.

4.Live video

Facebook Live makes this easy, but use these rules for better video: Look your best. Have the camera higher than you. (Best angle.) And make sure the light is good. Have light in front of you rather than behind you, and acknowledge your viewer as they come on. You don’t have to post it if it didn’t go well. But if it did, post it to your timeline. You can also upload it onto You Tube. Every morning I broadcast a Facebook Live video teaching on a Bible verse for the day from the reading plan I give on my blog.

5.Storytelling

It’s always better to show rather than tell. Hook them with the story. I often turn a scripture into a story at the beginning rather than simply writing the passage. This draws the reader in.

6.Images

A picture says a thousand words, but it also draws us in. We live in a world driven by images. So, they play an important role on our blogs and posting about our blogs. Choosing fresh, trendy, and copy-right free images are the keys to image success. Making Memes out of those images takes them one step farther for greater impact on our social media venues. Pixabay.com and unsplash.com provide free, copy-right free images. And Picmonkey.com and Canva.com are two great sites for putting text on those images (making the memes.)

These are the 2017 trends, but there are also some die-hard words of wisdom that will never change in the blogging world.

Be consistent.

Whether you write once a week or daily, just be faithful to your readers to do so consistently. No matter how up to date you are with the trends, if you aren’t consistent, you won’t grow your following. Keep on keepin’ on! Be thankful for the one. Don’t compare yourself to others. Go for a walk when you are frustated. And keep your ear to the heartbeat of the One who gave you this gift.

What’s your favorite part of blogging? What’s the hardest part about it for you? Leave a comment!

Andy Lee is an award-winning writer, blogger, Bible teacher, and author of two books, A Mary Like Me: Flawed Yet Called (Leafwood 2016), and The Book of Ruth Key Word Bible Study: A 31-Day Journey to Hope and Promise (AMG 2015). She is the managing editor of the FCWC blog, the president of the Wilmington Word Weavers, and mom to three grown kids, one son-in-law, and a kitty named Hank.